U.S. patent number 7,937,671 [Application Number 10/522,270] was granted by the patent office on 2011-05-03 for method for modifying a list of items selected by a user, notably a play list of an audio and/or video apparatus, and audio and/or video apparatus allowing play lists.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Thomson Licensing. Invention is credited to Valerie Liebhold, Lan Ying Tow.
United States Patent |
7,937,671 |
Liebhold , et al. |
May 3, 2011 |
Method for modifying a list of items selected by a user, notably a
play list of an audio and/or video apparatus, and audio and/or
video apparatus allowing play lists
Abstract
A method for modifying a play list in an audio and/or video
apparatus is proposed. This methods notably comprises the steps of:
displaying available tracks in a first area, displaying the current
play list in a second are, determining a track to be considered
depending on a first user action, indicating the track to be
considered by highlighting it in the first area, upon a second user
action, removing, if existing, the last occurrence of the track to
be considered in the play list displayed in the second area.
Inventors: |
Liebhold; Valerie (Carmel,
IN), Tow; Lan Ying (Woodlands, SG) |
Assignee: |
Thomson Licensing (Boulogne
Billancourt, FR)
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Family
ID: |
29797337 |
Appl.
No.: |
10/522,270 |
Filed: |
July 17, 2003 |
PCT
Filed: |
July 17, 2003 |
PCT No.: |
PCT/EP03/50317 |
371(c)(1),(2),(4) Date: |
January 25, 2005 |
PCT
Pub. No.: |
WO2004/012194 |
PCT
Pub. Date: |
February 05, 2004 |
Prior Publication Data
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Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
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US 20060015899 A1 |
Jan 19, 2006 |
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Foreign Application Priority Data
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|
|
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Jul 25, 2002 [EP] |
|
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02291894 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
715/828; 715/255;
715/727; 715/716; 725/44; 715/723; 725/46; 725/45; 725/43 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F
16/639 (20190101); G11B 27/034 (20130101); G11B
27/329 (20130101); G11B 27/105 (20130101); G11B
27/11 (20130101); G11B 2220/65 (20130101); G11B
2220/2562 (20130101); G11B 27/34 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G06F
3/048 (20060101) |
Field of
Search: |
;725/43-46
;715/255,716,723,727,828 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
Other References
Search Report Dated Nov. 7, 2003. cited by other.
|
Primary Examiner: Bui; Kieu Oanh
Assistant Examiner: Ekpo; Nnenna
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Shedd; Robert D. Kiel; Paul P.
Claims
The invention claimed is:
1. Method for modifying a play list in an audio and/or video
apparatus, comprising the steps of: displaying in a first area of a
screen a representation of at least part of available tracks, only
one occurrence of each available track appearing in the first area,
displaying in a second area of the screen at least part of the
current play list, determining a track to be considered upon a
first action introduced by a user, indicating the track to be
considered by a specific representation in the first area of the
screen associated with the track to be considered, repeating the
steps of determining and indicating to enable several occurrences
of the same track to be added to the play list, all the occurrences
of same track appearing in the first area, the considered track
being highlighted in the first area, if the user introduces a
second action for removing the track to be considered and
highlighted in the first area of the screen, and if several
occurrences of the track to be considered are displayed in the
second area displaying at least part of the play list, removing the
last occurrence of the track to be considered in the play list
displayed in the second area.
2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the first action and the
second action are actions introduced on a remote control sending
signals to the apparatus.
3. Method according to claim 1, wherein said specific
representation of the track to be considered is highlighting the
representation in the first area of the screen associated with the
track to be considered.
4. Method for modifying a play list in an audio and/or video
apparatus, comprising the steps of: generating video signals
defining a screen with a first area displaying a representation of
at least part of available tracks and a second area displaying at
least part of the current play list, only one occurrence of each
available track appearing in the first area, determining a track to
be considered upon receiving a first signal introduced by a user
from a user interface, indicating the track to be considered by
generating video signals defining a specific representation in the
first area of the screen associated with the track to be
considered, the considered track being highlighted in the first
area, if the user introduces a second signal from the user
interface, for removing the track to be considered and highlighted
in the first area, and if several occurrences of the track to be
considered are displayed in the second area displaying at least
part of the play list, removing the last occurrence of the track to
be considered in the play list displayed in the second area.
5. Method according to claim 4, wherein the user interface receives
signals from a remote control.
6. Method according to claim 4, wherein said specific
representation of the track to be considered is highlighting the
representation in the first area of the screen associated with the
track to be considered.
7. Audio and/or video apparatus having a media reader to read a
medium where the data are organized in tracks, and a memory able to
store a play list, comprising: video means generating video signals
defining a screen with a first area displaying a representation of
at least part of the tracks and a second area displaying at least
part of the play list, only one occurrence of each available track
appearing in the first area, a user interface for receiving a first
signal determining a track to be considered, wherein the video
means are meant to indicate the track to be considered by
generating video signals defining a specific representation in the
first area of the screen associated with the track to be
considered, the considered track being highlighted in the first
area, control means for removing the track to be considered and
highlighted in the first area of the screen, and if several
occurrences of the track to be considered are displayed in the
second area displaying at least part of the play list, said control
means removing the last occurrence of the track to be considered in
the play list upon receiving a second signal introduced by the user
from the user interface.
8. Audio and/or video apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the
user interface receives the first signal and the second signal from
a remote control.
9. Audio and/or video apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said
specific representation of the track to be considered is
highlighting the representation in the first area of the screen
associated with the track to be considered.
10. Method for modifying a list of items selected by a user from a
given set, comprising the steps of: displaying in a first area a
representation of items of the given set, only one occurrence of
each item appearing in the first area displaying in a second area a
list representing at least part of the previously selected items,
determining an item to be considered upon a first action introduced
by the user, indicating the item to be considered by a specific
representation in the first area of the item to be considered, the
considered item highlighted in the first area if the user
introduces a second action for removing the item to be considered
and highlighted in the first area, and if several occurrences of
the item to be considered are displayed in the second area,
removing the last occurrence of the item to be considered in the
list displayed in the second area.
Description
This application claims the benefit, under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.365 of
International Application PCT/EP03/50317, filed Jul. 17, 2003,
which was published in accordance with PCT Article 21(2) on Feb. 5,
2004 in English and which claims the benefit of European patent
application No. 02291894.0, filed Jul. 25, 2002.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method for modifying a list of items
selected by a user, notably a play list of an audio and/or video
apparatus, and to an audio and/or video apparatus allowing play
lists.
BACKGROUND
In an audio and/or video apparatus, the data to be played are often
arranged in tracks so that the user can have a quick access to the
part he wants to listen or watch. The track corresponds for
instance to a song in an audio apparatus and to a part of a movie
in a video apparatus.
For the user's convenience, it has been further proposed to play
only selected tracks in a preferred order according to a play list.
Before being played, the play list has to be determined by the user
by a selection among available tracks. Several methods have already
been proposed to create and modify a play list.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,986,979 describes a method for manipulating a play
list without referring display. This method may be of interest when
it is desirable not to rely on a display, for instance in a
car.
Methods using a display to view and manipulate a play list have
been proposed, notably for personal computers (PC), as described
for instance in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,118,450 and 6,356,971 or patent
application WO 00/28 396. To modify the play list, these solutions
use conventional PC techniques, such as the "drag-and-drop"
feature.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,872,568 discloses one possible method for
determining user-list of values from pre-defined values. In a first
mode (FIG. 4), this document proposes to highlight the selected
values in the total list of pre-defined values. This solution
however cannot be used for a play list where the order of tracks to
be played can be changed by the user. FIG. 6 shows a second mode
where it is possible to remove a value from the user-list box by
highlighting it in the same box and activating a screen area
labelled "Delete".
The invention aims at a new method for modifying a list of items
selected from a set of available items, notably a play list taken
from available tracks, which is easy to handle for the user and
gives him a clear view of what he is doing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention proposes a method for modifying a play list in an
audio and/or video apparatus, comprising the steps of displaying in
a first area of a screen a representation of at least part of
available tracks, displaying in a second area of the screen at
least part of the current play list, determining a track to be
considered upon a first user action, indicating the track to be
considered by a specific representation in the first area of the
track to be considered and, upon a second user action, removing, if
existing, the last occurrence of the track to be considered in the
play list displayed in the second area.
Preferably, the first user action and the second user action are
actions on a remote-control which sends signals to the apparatus.
The specific representation of the track to be considered may be
highlighting the representation in the first area of the track to
be considered.
The invention also proposes a method for modifying a play list in
an audio and/or video apparatus, comprising the steps of generating
video signals defining a screen with a first area displaying a
representation of at least part of available tracks and a second
area displaying at least part of the current play list, determining
a track to be considered upon receiving a first signal from a user
interface, indicating the track to be considered by generating
video signals defining a specific representation in the first area
of the track to be considered and, upon receiving a second signal
from the user interface, removing, if existing, the last occurrence
of the track to be considered in the play list displayed in the
second area.
Advantageously, the user interface receives signals from a
remote-control. The specific representation of the track to be
considered may be highlighting the representation in the first area
of the track to be considered.
The invention also proposes an audio and/or video apparatus having
a media reader to read a medium where the data are organised in
tracks, and a memory able to store a play list, comprising video
means generating video signals defining a screen with a first area
displaying a representation of at least part of the tracks and a
second area displaying at least part of the play list, a user
interface for receiving a first signal determining a track to be
considered, wherein the video means are meant to indicate the track
to be considered by generating video signals defining a specific
representation in the first area of the track to be considered, and
control means for removing, if existing, the last occurrence of the
track to be considered in the play list upon receiving a second
signal by the user interface.
Advantageously, the user interface receives the first signal and
the second signal from a remote-control. The specific
representation of the track to be considered may be highlighting
the representation in the first area of the track to be
considered.
More generally, the invention proposes a method for modifying a
list of items selected by a user from a given set, comprising the
steps of displaying in a first area a representation of items of
the given set, displaying in a second area a list representing at
least part of the previously selected items, determining an item to
be considered upon a first user action, indicating the item to be
considered by a specific representation in the, first area of the
item to be considered and, upon a second user action, removing, if
existing, the last occurrence of the item to be considered in the
list displayed in the second area.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention and other features thereof will be understood in the
light of the following description made with reference to the
attached drawing where: FIG. 1 represents a video and audio
apparatus embodying the invention; FIGS. 2 to 8 represent various
possible screen contents on a display linked to the apparatus of
FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
A video and audio player 2 is schematically represented at FIG. 1.
The player 2 has a disc reader 4 which can receive both DVDs and
CDs.
The player 2 comprises a decoder 6 for converting data retrieved
from the CD or DVD into analogue video signals VIDEO when reading a
DVD and analogue audio signals AUDIO in both cases. The analogue
video signals VIDEO are for instance composite video signals (CVBS)
which are transmitted to a display 10 through a standard scart
connector 12 (pin 19) to be viewed on the screen 8 of the display
10.
The analogue audio signals AUDIO are output on connectors 14, for
instance RCA-type connectors, to be connected to the amplifier 16
of a stereo set where the sound track (from CD or DVD) is played by
the loudspeakers 18. Although the AUDIO signals are represented by
one line in FIG. 1, they can of course use any number of
connections, for instance 2 connectors for stereo systems or 5
connectors for surround effect systems.
The various parts of the player 2 are controlled by a
micro-processor 20 using a memory 22. Notably, an OSD generator 24
receives instructions from the micro-processor 20 to generate on
outputs R, G , B video signals which are to be superimposed on the
analogue video signals VIDEO or even cover the whole area of the
screen 8. These video signals R, G, B are for instance carried by
pins 15, 11 and 7 of the standard scart connector 12.
The video signals R, G, B output by the OSD generator 24 are
determined by the micro-processor 20 and are meant to provide
information to the user watching the display 10, for instance
menus.
To complement this user interface, the player has a receiver 26
receiving signals, e.g. infrared signals, from a remote-control 28
with buttons which can be pressed by the user to control operation
of the video player 2.
Upon a given action of the user on the remote-control 28 (i.e.
pressing a given button), a corresponding (infrared) signal is
generated by the remote-control 28, received by the receiver 26,
forwarded to the micro-processor 20 and interpreted as a given user
command. Such a command could be for instance to start playing a CD
or to display a menu.
As explained above, a menu is displayed based on instructions from
the micro-processor 20 to the OSD generator 24 which outputs video
signals R, G, B which define this menu. Depending on further action
of the user on the remote-control (pressing the direction buttons
or arrow keys), the user can navigate the menu, i.e. choose an item
of the menu of consideration. This item will correspondingly be
indicated in the menu as considered, for instance by being
highlighted. The highlighted item may then be selected, or a
corresponding action triggered by pressing a further button.
The video player 2 allows to play tracks according to a play list,
i.e. a user-defined list of tracks from the CD or DVD to be played.
The play list is stored in the memory 22 associated to the
micro-processor 20. When using the play list function, the
micro-processor 20 instructs the disc reader 4 to play the tracks
as specified in the stored play list (i.e. the specified tracks in
the specified order).
The play list can be created and modified as explained below and
illustrated by the example given on FIGS. 2 to 7. In these figures,
a highlighted box (i.e. a highlighted screen area) is represented
by a hatched box.
When accessing the play list manipulation screen, as represented on
FIG. 2, the play list is empty as shown in the play list area 40
(right-hand side of the screen 8) where no track listing
appears.
On the left-hand side of the screen 8, a content area 38 contains a
list of tracks available in the CD or DVD which is inserted in the
disc reader 4. In the example described in the figures, the
inserted disc has 6 tracks, referenced Track1 to Track6.
Correspondingly, the content area 38 shows 6 boxes, each box
representing a track and labelled Track1 to Track6.
When accessing the play list manipulation screen, the first box
(starting from the top) 40 labelled and corresponding to Track 1,
is highlighted by default.
In order to select a track to be entered in the play list (i.e. to
be added as last element in the play list), the user has first to
indicate the desired track by highlighting the corresponding box.
The user moves the highlight from one box to another by using the
(vertical) arrow keys 34, 36 ("up" button 34 and "down" button 36)
of the remote-control 28. Then, the track corresponding to the
highlighted box may be entered in the play list by pressing the
"OK" button 30 (selection action). Once the desired track is
entered in the play list, it is added at the end of the play list
shown in the play list area 40.
For example, when starting from the screen of FIG. 2, the user
presses the "down" button 36 to highlight the second box 44
(labelled and corresponding to Track2), as shown in FIG. 3. Then,
the user presses the "OK" button 30 to enter Track2 into the play
list. The play list is updated accordingly and displayed in the
play list area 40, as shown in FIG. 4: the play list reads "T2"
indicating it contains only Track2.
Further tracks can be added in the same way. For instance, starting
from the screen of FIG. 4, by pressing twice the "down" button 36,
the box labelled Track4 is highlighted and, by pressing the "OK"
button, Track4 is entered in the play list, which now reads "T2-T4"
as represented on FIG. 5.
Using this scheme, the user can define a play list as shown for
instance on FIG. 6 where the play list reads "T2-T4-T6-T4-T5". For
the user's convenience the player 2 also makes it possible to
remove elements (i.e. here tracks) from the play list as described
below.
When the highlight is on a box of the content area 38 representing
a given track, pressing on a "CLR" button 32 removes (i.e. deletes)
this given track (or element) from the play list (if it is present
in the play list) only in its last entered position. Said
differently, action on the "CLR" button 32 removes from the play
list (in the play list area 40) the last occurrence of the track
which is highlighted in the content area 38, if such an occurrence
exists.
Naturally, this notably means that, if the given track is only
present once in the play list (i.e. has only one occurrence in the
list), it is (i.e. this only occurrence is) removed from the play
list.
If the highlighted track (i.e. precisely the track corresponding to
the highlighted box in the content area 38) is not present in the
play list (as displayed in the play list area 40), action on the
"CLR" button 32 has no effect.
Referring back to the example, when starting from FIG. 6, the user
presses the "up" button 34 to move the highlight from box "Track5"
to box "Track4", but still in the content area 38, as represented
in FIG. 7. The play list as visible in the play list area 40 reads
"T2-T4-T6-T4-T5" as previously indicated.
The user then presses the "CLR" button 32 which removes the last
"T4" entry (as box "Track 4" is highlighted) from the play list and
thus from the play list area 40. The play list then reads
"T2-T4-T6-T5" as illustrated in FIG. 8.
This method of removal of an element in the play list is
particularly convenient for several reasons. First, it is simple as
the highlight remains in the content area 38 so that the user does
not navigate the play list area 40. Nevertheless, it is possible to
remove an element from the middle of the play list (not only the
bottom) by highlighting the correct box in the content area.
Furthermore, it is particularly fitted for modifying lists where an
item (e.g. a track) may occur more than once: in such a case, it is
of course desirable to give the user the possibility to have two
occurrences (or more) of the same item for maximum flexibility.
But, as the second (or further) occurrence often comes from a
mistake from the user, it is also highly desirable to allow easy
removal of this second (or further) occurrence while keeping the
first one, as provided by the invention.
* * * * *